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Correction

3/14/2013

An item in the March 13 Wind Energy SmartBrief misstated the status of a Vestas facility in Pueblo, Colo. The company has not identified whether the facility will be made available for sale under its recovery plan. SmartBrief regrets the error.

Related Summaries

The commissioners of Ford County, Ill., are considering a proposed road-use agreement for Vision Energy's already-approved, 94-turbine K4 Wind Farm project. Approval of the road-use contract represents one of the final hurdles for the project. Meanwhile, the county's planning commission is scheduled to meet today to discuss a special-use permit application for the Dogtown Wind Project, a proposed wind farm near Paxton.

Gestamp Wind Energy has closed the transaction to sell and lease back a wind farm in Puerto Rico to Sovereign Bank for $88 million, according to CohnReznick and Reznick Capital Markets Securities. The 23.4-megawatt wind facility has an agreement with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, which buys 100% of the farm's generated energy.

The Department of the Interior announced the approval of one utility-scale wind project and two solar projects that when completed will have a combined capacity to power 340,000 homes. The projects are Duke Energy's 200-megawatt Searchlight Wind Energy Project in Searchlight, Nev., NextEra Energy's 750-MW McCoy Solar Energy Project near Blythe, Calif., and EDF Renewable Energy's 150-MW Desert Harvest Solar Farm near Desert Center, Calif.

U.S. wind power posted unprecedented growth last year, accounting for at least 10% of the electricity supply in nine states, up from five states in the year before, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Wind power was the top source of new capacity in 2012, accounting for 42% of all newly installed capacity with 13,124 megawatts, AWEA said. "We are generating enough clean, affordable, American wind energy to power the equivalent of almost 15 million homes, or the number in Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, and Ohio combined," said Elizabeth Salerno, AWEA's chief economist and director of data and analysis.

A bill in the Maine legislature seeks to repeal the 100-megawatt limit on generation facilities contributing to the state's renewable portfolio standard. The state's RPS currently puts a 100-MW cap on renewable-energy plants, excluding wind farms. Supporters of the measure say it could drive down electricity rates by encouraging the influx of cheap hydro power from Canada, but critics argue that tinkering with the RPS may affect its ability to create jobs and attract investments to the state.